A Northampton County jury hands victory to two defendants in 2012 Bethlehem gun battle

A Northampton County jury handed a victory Friday to two defendants charged in a fatal 2012 gun battle in Bethlehem, convicting one of lesser charges and acquitting the other altogether after a trial in which their lawyers insisted they were the victims and not the aggressors.

Rene Figueroa, who could have faced the death penalty, was found guilty only of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and two firearms-related offenses in the chaotic shootout outside a South Side Puerto Rican social club.

His co-defendant, Javier Rivera-Alvarado, was pronounced not guilty of all charges, including counts of attempted murder, conspiracy and aggravated assault that could have put him away for decades. Judge Anthony Beltrami said the 40-year-old Allentown man would be freed from Northampton County Prison, allowing him to return to freedom after nearly two years of incarceration.

The mixed verdict, delivered after five hours of jury deliberations, ended a hotly contested monthlong trial that largely boiled down to a single issue: whether Figueroa and Rivera-Alvarado were the attackers or the attacked during a Dec. 2, 2012, firefight that authorities labeled one of the Lehigh Valley's worst.

Gunned down on East Third Street was 23-year-old Yolanda Morales of Bethlehem. Five others — including the two defendants — were wounded in the brutal melee, which erupted after a minor incident inside the Puerto Rican Beneficial Society spilled outside.

Bethlehem Puerto Rican social club shooting jury verdict came down Friday, October 31, 2014 (DONNA FISHER / THE MORNING CALL)

The jury's decision brought disappointment from the families of Morales and the three others wounded early that morning. The prosecution's star witness, Orialis Figueroa of Easton, left the courthouse without comment, pulling a cap over his face to prevent his picture being taken. His brother, Angel Figueroa, who was paralyzed in the gunfight, declined to comment. (Neither is related to the defendant.)

"I'm sick to my stomach," said Kiomaralis Velasquez, the two men's niece, noting that Rene Figueroa will one day be released from prison. "My uncle's never going to walk again and [Morales] died for nothing."

The verdict brought sighs of relief from Rivera-Alvarado's family and also from that of Rene Figueroa, considering that a first-degree murder conviction would have left Figueroa with just two stark outcomes: death by lethal injection or life in prison without parole.

By contrast, involuntary manslaughter — a "grossly negligent," but unintentional killing — is a misdemeanor punishable by up to five years in prison.

McMahon added: "Client's facing the death penalty and he gets convicted of a misdemeanor; we're very, very happy about that."

The most serious charge Rene Figueroa was found guilty of was aggravated assault, for the shooting of Angel Figueroa, 37, of Easton. It was a bullet from Rene Figueroa's .45-caliber handgun that paralyzed Angel Figueroa — as was acknowledged by McMahon, though he unsuccessfully argued self-defense.

The felony can bring up to 10 to 20 years in prison, and Rene Figueroa also faces sentencing on the other charges: manslaughter, carrying a firearm without a license and receiving stolen property because the gun he had was stolen.

Throughout the trial, prosecutors insisted that it was the defendants who perpetrated the violence, with Rivera-Alvarado sneaking up behind Orialis Figueroa and placing a handgun to the back of his head.

In the anarchy that ensued, Orialis Figueroa managed to knock his assailant unconscious with a baseball bat, disarm him, then turn the gun on Rene Figueroa and chase him off, prosecutors maintained. At least five family members of Orialis Figueroa's offered testimony backing that narrative, and First Deputy District Attorney Terence Houck argued that ballistics and DNA evidence supported it.

Orialis Figueroa, 30, was shot in both legs during the gun battle. A relative, 26-year-old Luis Rivera of Easton, was wounded in the knee.

Rivera-Alvarado was shot in the leg and hit across the head with the bat. Gunshots struck Rene Figueroa in the stomach, elbow, wrist, side and buttocks.

The defense maintained there was a simple explanation for what happened, and that it turned the case on its head.

What really occurred, the attorneys said, was that Orialis Figueroa and his family began savagely beating an unarmed Rivera-Alvarado, even after he was knocked out. Rene Figueroa then acted to protect his companion, appearing with a gun and firing a warning shot into the air, the defense said.

Rivera-Alvarado's lawyer, Edward Andres, told the jury his client never had a gun and never fired a shot, and was incapacitated before bullets started flying.

McMahon said the verdict shows that jurors found the prosecution's account lacking.

"It is a complete repudiation of the government's case, that our guys were the instigators of all that," McMahon said.

Houck said he agreed that jurors rejected his witnesses' version of events with respect to Rivera-Alvarado. But he noted that McMahon's client was still convicted of an unjustified shooting of Morales and Angel Figueroa.

Houck said the case presented many challenges given the number of victims, the number of gunshots and the chaotic crime scene left in the wake.

"It was an extraordinarily, extraordinarily difficult case and we knew that going in," Houck said.

He said he understands why relatives of Morales and Angel and Orialis Figueroa would be disappointed.

"The jury had a lot to go through. They certainly were attentive and they came to a decision that they felt was best," Houck said.

"The good news is there's a very dangerous guy who will be off the streets for a while, though not as long as we'd hoped," Houck added of Rene Figueroa.

The jury's verdict was delivered to a hushed courtroom packed with supporters from both sides. Fifteen deputy sheriffs were present in case problems developed, and Beltrami asked everyone to be mindful regardless of the result.

"I want to have a very peaceful reading of this verdict no matter what it is, so that each side respects the other side's loss," Beltrami said. There were no outbursts.

Beltrami said he will sentence Rene Figueroa at a later date.

Rene Figueroa, 34, of Allentown still faces unresolved charges that allege he tried to hire a fellow jail inmate to kill witnesses in the case, allegations that were aired at the trial. He and his wife, Sonia Panell, also are charged with trying to sneak a cellphone into the prison.

Panell also faces federal charges alleging she tried to hire a different hit man who turned out to be an FBI informant who secretly recorded her. Those accusations, which weren't allowed into her husband's trial, are scheduled to go before a federal jury in February.

Panell initially pleaded guilty in the case, but a U.S. District Court judge has since allowed her to withdraw that plea after she claimed she was entrapped by the informant, who she alleges was desperate for money and has lied to the FBI in the past.

McMahon said he doesn't know whether Northampton County prosecutors will reconsider the additional charges his client faces, given the verdict. Houck said he believes his office will continue to prosecute them.